A prominent name has been added to the list of disillusioned snowbirds switching their residency from Connecticut to Florida: former Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

The Brookfield Republican recently notified town party members that she could no longer serve as a justice of the peace because of an impending change in her residency to the Sunshine State, where Rell owns a second home in New Smyrna Beach.

Rell, 69, who served as governor from 2004 to 2011, was also conspicuously absent from a list of superdelegates at the state GOP convention Monday night in Hartford.

The last Republican to win a statewide election, Rell cited a combination of reasons for her Florida move, from her late husband Lou Rell’s love of their vacation home to “the direction” of Connecticut.

“It is in a downward spiral,” Rell told Hearst Connecticut Media from Florida. She said taxes weren’t a big factor for her, but that Connecticut is becoming inhospitable, especially for businesses.

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Rell said she knew of a host of Connecticut snowbirds who have decided to make Florida their home.

“I think that’s a sad commentary on Connecticut,” she said.

Widowed in 2014, the popular former governor is still listed as an active voter on Brookfield’s election rolls, according to Thomas Dunkerton, the town’s GOP registrar of voters.

Rell’s decision to join the migration of Connecticut residents and corporations out of state is expected to fuel GOP criticism of Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy that the cost of living and doing businesses here is too onerous. It comes four months after General Electric announced it was moving its headquarters from its longtime home in Fairfield to Boston.

Florida has no individual income tax, while Connecticut's top marginal rate is 6.7 percent. For corporate taxes, Florida charges a rate of 5.5 percent on all income compared to 9 percent in Connecticut, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation. In 2012, the Sunshine State poached the $9 billion hedge fund of Edward Lampert, ESL Investments, from Greenwich.

“I don’t think Jodi Rell’s changing her residency is any different from the rest of our residents and businesses who are forced to move out because of our bad tax climate,” said state House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby. “But it emphasizes the point that someone who has loved this state and given much of her life to helping it has even been forced to give up.”

Most states require individuals to spend a majority of nights there to establish residency, according to tax experts, who say that there are pros and cons to Florida.

“Property taxes have been a bone of contention for the past decade in Florida,” said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington, D.C., think tank. “Everyone seems to agree that their property taxes are too high.”

The state and local sales tax in Florida can reach as high as 7.5 percent, compared to 6.35 percent in Connecticut.

Gardner said services — education, health care and roads — can play just as big as factor as taxes in deciding which state to call home.

“Certainly, there can be individuals like Jodi Rell who either want to make a point or don’t have the need for services who have the luxury of shifting their allegiances,” Gardner said. “There’s nothing Connecticut can do policy-wise that’s going to make it Florida in terms of weather and tourism.”

Since leaving office, the popular former governor has mostly avoided publicly criticizing her successor, Malloy. But at a 2014 GOP dinner honoring her in Waterbury, Rell called Malloy’s claim that he inherited a $3.6 billion deficit from her “lies.”

Dating back to her time as a state legislator and then lieutenant governor, fellow Republicans say, Rell has served as a justice of the peace and officiated wedding ceremonies in Brookfield.